A 59-year-old Egyptian hijacker was arrested after the Airbus A320 landed in Larnaca, Cyprus on Tuesday. Authorities described the suspect to be "psychologically unstable."
Egytian authorities said that the hijacker, who claimed he was wearing a suicidal explosive belt, forced the pilot to fly the jet to Cyprus, CNN stated in a report. Airline officials were later told by the Cypriot authorities that the said belt was fake.
The motives were unclear for the hijacking, however, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said it was not terrorism-related. According to Yahoo News, Hussein Abdelkarim Tantaway Mubarak, Egypt's ambassador to Cyprus, said the whole affair "looks like it was a family feud."
Nikos Christodulides, Cypriot government spokesman, tweeted that no one was injured.
Some reports revealed that the Egyptian man was identified by Cypriot and Egyptian authorities as Seif Eldin Mustafa who only wanted to talk to his estranged Cypriot wife that lives on the Mediterranean island. Other reports claim that he was seeking the release of female prisoners in Egypt.
Cypriot Foreign Minister Loannis Kasoulides said Mustafa asked to speak to his Cypriot ex-wife, who was later brought to the airport. Local media reports also said that he handed over a four-page letter in Arabic to be given to his wife.
President Anastasiades jokingly responded to a reporter's question about whether the hijacker was motivated by romance, saying, "Always, there is a woman involved."
Egyptian officials stressed that their security measures were not to blame and that there was even praise for the EgyptAir flight crew, BBC reported. Egypt said it has taken steps to improve safety after the Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 was blown up over Sinai last October.
EgyptAir revealed that Airbus A320 was carrying 56 passengers from Alexandria to Cairo, along with six crew members and one security official. It initially had 81 passengers on board.
A statement was released by Egypt's civil aviation ministry saying that there are 26 foreign passengers: eight Americans, four Britons, four Dutch citizens, two Belgians, two Greeks, a French national, an Italian and a Syrian.
Larnaca airport, on the Southcoast of Cyprus, has been closed and scheduled flights were diverted elsewhere.
